Business Society

The future is an uncertain, uncomfortable prospect for employees, employers, and society at large. A flurry of unprecedented events have proven that, despite what some politicians and economists may tell us, the future is not set in stone. In light of this uncertainty, The Future Starts Now looks toward the various innovations and technologies that may shape our future. Authors Theo Priestley and Bronwyn Williams have brought together the world's leading futurists to articulate and clarify the current trajectories in technology, economics, politics, and business.

The global coronavirus pandemic has thrown into stark relief how "business as usual" is no longer serving us. The economic, business, and environmental models of the past do not reflect our current realities. And for our economy - for us - to survive, we need nothing less than a seismic shift in the way we do business.

Are the rich bad for society? The author of this book, a successful Canadian entrepreneur who made his fortune and created 3000 jobs, has written a manifesto celebrating the achievements of people who have earned their wealth. He says that many of the critics are overlooking one crucial thing: we need business people to build companies and generate wealth to keep the economy going. That's the only way to generate the wealth that pays for government services like health and education.

What if you could have whatever you want, produced and provided immediately and affordably no matter how customized—with minimal environmental impact? Products, services, and experiences on demand. Just-in-time anything, anywhere, anytime. This radical change is underway, as digital technologies push the production and provision of value ever closer to the moment of demand. Robert C. Wolcott and Kaihan Krippendorff provide an indispensable guide to the Proximity revolution, showing how it's transforming every industry—and our lives.

In The Token, your new token Black friend, Crystal Byrd Farmer, acts as the bridge between majority White organizations that are dedicated to social justice and "diverse" people in community they want to recruit, across identities of race, LGBTQ, education, socioeconomic status, and disability. With a blunt style that pulls no punches, Crystal tells you how it is, calling you out on tokenism, while extending a hand to help your organization make real transformative change toward diversity and inclusion.

Can you be in HR for more than 30 years and still be geeked out about it? The answer is yes, you can! HR leader and popular Everyday People blogger Steve Browne takes a fresh look at HR through an engaging assortment of real-life examples, insights, and epiphanies and encourages practitioners to drop the preconceptions of what HR should be and instead look to what HR could be. Listen to this book to rekindle your passion for a field that is vibrant and vital and touch the lives of everyone you encounter with HR on Purpose!

Research shows that people often wildly misunderstand the state of the world, regardless of age, sex, or education. And though the internet brings us unprecedented access to information, there's little evidence we're any better informed because of it. We may blame cognitive bias or fake news, but neither tells the complete story. Bobby Duffy draws on his research into public perception, offering a sweeping account of the stubborn problem of human delusion: how society breeds it, why it will never go away, and what our misperceptions say about what we really believe.

What's Wrong with China is the widely anticipated follow-up to Paul Midler's Poorly Made in China, an expose of China manufacturing practices. Applying a wider lens in this account, he reveals many of the deep problems affecting Chinese society as a whole. Once again, Midler delivers the goods by rejecting commonly held notions, breaking down old myths, and providing fresh explanations of lesser-understood cultural phenomena.

Dedicated disability inclusion advocate and process improvement specialist Julie Harris delivers an actionable guide for those navigating life with disabilities. The author accepts the idea of limitations caused by disability as a neutral fact, rather than as a negative or positive, and shows us how to use limitations as parameters to accept and work within, rather than resist or reframe. Boldly Belong is also essential for business, academic, military, and athletic leaders who want to understand more about disability and cultivate disability inclusive environments that promote belonging.

Developed by experienced professors and professionally narrated for easy listening, this course is a valuable tool when preparing for your Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional or SHRM-CP Exam. The audio is focused and high-yield, covering the most important topics you need to know to succeed on the SHRM-CP Test.

In today’s world, the acceleration of megatrends – increasing longevity and the explosion of technology among many others – are transforming life as we now know it. In The Perennials, bestselling author of 2030 Mauro Guillén unpacks a sweeping societal shift triggered by demographic and technological transformation. Guillén argues that outmoded terms like Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z have long been used to pigeonhole us into rigid categories and life stages, artificially preventing people from reaching their full potential.

The digital age we live in is as transformative as the Industrial Revolution, and Joshua Cooper Ramo explains how to survive. If you find yourself longing for a disconnected world where information is not always at your fingertips, you may eventually be as useful as the carriage maker post-Henry Ford. It's practically impossible to know where the marriage of imagination and technology will take us (sorry, Betamax and Kodak), and the only certainty is that in the networked world we will only become more intertwined.

John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid show us how to look beyond mere information to the social context that creates and gives meaning to it. Arguing elegantly for the important role that human sociability plays, even - perhaps especially - in the digital world, The Social Life of Information gives us an optimistic look beyond the simplicities of information and individuals.

Business has a bad name for many people. It is easy to point to unethical and damaging behavior by companies. And it may seem straightforward to blame either individuals or, more generally, ruthless markets and amoral commercial society. In Honorable Business, James R. Otteson argues that business activity can be valuable in itself. Done correctly, honorable business can enable flourishing for individuals and prosperity for society.

Time is the ultimate scarce resource and thus quintessentially a topic for economics, which studies scarcity. Starting with the observation that time is increasingly valuable given competing demands as we have more things we can buy and do, Spending Time provides engaging insights into how people use their time and what determines their decisions about spending their time.

How to achieve lifelong fulfillment and lasting happiness by looking no further than within...Can you honestly say that you’re living your best life? No, not a life of ease and comfort, despite what society may dictate. Nor one of ultimate luxury and opulence. Living your best life means living up to your full potential, being at peace with who you are and feeling like you’ve given it your all. In Growing Stronger, you will uncover the secrets to reframe your perspective and tackle the issues that are keeping you from your authentic self.

Breakthroughs such as personalized genomics, drones, self-driving vehicles, and artificial intelligence could make our lives healthier, safer, and easier. On the other hand, the same technologies raise the specter of a frightening future - eugenics, a jobless economy, a complete loss of privacy, and ever-worsening economic inequality. Wadhwa says that we need to ask three questions about every emerging technology: Does it have the potential to benefit everyone equally? What are the risks and the rewards? And does it promote autonomy or dependence?

It used to be that to diagnose an illness, interpret legal documents, analyze foreign policy, or write a newspaper article you needed a human being with specific skills - and maybe an advanced degree or two. These days, high-level tasks are increasingly being handled by algorithms that can do precise work not only with speed but also with nuance. These "bots" started with human programming and logic, but now their reach extends beyond what their creators ever expected.

In this concise book, feminist thought is made accessible and relevant to both students and management practitioners. An empowering introduction to an often-overlooked key idea, this book illuminates how feminist thinking can liberate our understanding of work and management.

Adrift on a Sea of Belief: A Guide for Walkaway-Witnesses in Finding God is the first book of its kind. Rebecca Mantore provides next-step “what now?” information for walkaway-witnesses - those Jehovah’s Witnesses who courageously jump ship to navigate their life apart from Watchtower control. Dr. Mantore is supremely qualified to write this book as a walkaway-Witness who left the church after 34 years of living as a model Jehovah’s Witness. Dr. Mantore identifies elements of the unique phenomenon fleeing Witnesses face.